


Tree of Hearts

by MilevenIsEndGame



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Mileven, Mileven Day, Mileven Week, happy mileven day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27442978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilevenIsEndGame/pseuds/MilevenIsEndGame
Summary: Mike and El met on the night of November 7, 1983.  Two years later, he's missing her.(This is an EXTREMELY short read, and I might add it to series of very short one-shots that correlate.)
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Kudos: 17





	Tree of Hearts

It had been 32 days since the most important person in his life had packed up and moved away with her new family, to a new home, in a new town, in an entirely different state. And he was counting down the days until he would see her again. 32 days down, 20 more days to go. He could do this.

But he really wished he could see her today.

It had been two years to the day since they first met. She wasn’t who he was looking for in the woods that night, but nevertheless, he found her. She was cold and alone and terrified, wearing only a t-shirt as the pouring rain dripped from her. He gave her the coat off his back without hesitation and rushed her back to his home where he gave her warm clothes and food, and a safe place to sleep. And in the course of a week, although he hadn’t realized it yet, he had fallen in love with her. And it broke his heart when she had to say goodbye.

After she disappeared, he called out to her every night for 353 days, just hoping for any kind of sign that she was still out there somewhere; that she was okay. And just when he’d begun to lose hope, she quite literally walked back into his life. And right then and there, she saved him in more ways than he could ever express to her. 

The anniversary of the day they met was three days later, and he couldn’t help thinking of it as _their_ anniversary. And after nearly a year without her, he didn’t want to waste another second.

He biked over to the cabin where she was living straight after school that day, and he asked her to be his girlfriend. Officially. And she made him the happiest guy in the world when she said yes.

He wished he could just jump on his bike and go visit her now, but he would have to love her from afar this year. God, he missed her…

And that was how he found himself biking back to the place that started it all; Mirkwood.

He stashed his bike away at the entrance of the woods just like he had two years ago, and he wandered into the thicket until he came to the place where they first met. He pulled out the swiss army knife he’d gotten from his dad last Christmas and got to work. When he was finished, there was a heart carved into a tree with “Mike + El” carved inside, and “11-7-83” underneath it.

Mike smiled, admiring his work. “Happy Anniversary, El,” he said out loud. “I miss you.”

As he made his way back to his bike, he decided he wasn’t going to tell El about the tree carving. At least, not yet. He was sure the phone call he was going to make to her later that night plus the gifts he’d already sent her in the mail would make her more than happy on their anniversary.

The tree carving would have to wait until Christmas. El was coming to visit, and he already couldn’t wait to surprise her with it.

Spoiler alert… she loves it.

  
  
  



End file.
